American Queen by Sierra Simone

American Queen is the first in a trilogy (or pentalogy if you include the two novellas about side characters) that recasts the Arthurian legend with an American president, the president’s wife, and the vice president. That is, Maxen (also called Ash), Greer, and Embry.

As the granddaughter of a former vice president, Greer has grown up in politics and intentionally chose the quiet life of an academic as an adult. She first meets Ash when she’s a teenager and he’s a soldier. They share a passionate kiss (he has enough sense to realize that it shouldn’t go further at that time) and they don’t see each other for several years. But that kiss was enough for Greer to fall madly in love with him. Years later Greer meets Embry and shares some sexy time with him, neither realizing that they both a connection to Maxen/Ash. Greer and Embry’s time together is short lived, and she doesn’t see Embry again until year later when he walks back into her life and tells her the now President Maxen/Ash would like to see her, and so it begins…

The relationship between Maxen/Ash and Greer (and between Maxen/Ash and Embry) is that of a dominant and submissive. I often have hard time with stories where a woman is submissive to a man. That being said, Sierra Simone made it a palatable and even understandable. Unlike say Fifty Shades of Grey, it is always clear that being a submissive in the bedroom is what Greer wants and craves. Maxen/Ash doesn’t introduce the idea to her. He doesn’t talk her into it or in any way coerce her. In finding each other, Greer and Maxen/Ash truly find their other half. Then they find their third. (I know that math doesn’t quite work; go with the metaphor.) Their relationship always felt consensual and I very much appreciated that. I don’t think I have ever read anything quite like this before. 

I am eager to read the next book in the series, American Prince, which will be from Embry’s point of view. Told from Greer’s point of view American Queen was hot, but I imagine being inside Embry’s mind will feel like a sauna.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Between college in Boston, a semester in London, and studying political science - I was dimly aware of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland, but I didn't truly understand it. In Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe sheds light on this decades long conflict. Or should I call it a war? "Troubles" is way too small a word to describe what happened in Northern Ireland.

Say Nothing is more than a history lesson. It also a true crime mystery. The book begins with the kidnapping and disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten who was snatched out of her home, children clinging to her, and never seen again. Say Nothing explores how and why people on both sides did what they did and how their actions bled (literally and figuratively) into the lives of civilians.

I couldn't put this down and this is the ultimate compliment I can pay a book. This is a meaty book and somehow I finished it in three days.